In reaction to a primary list of peace negotiators leaked to media on Thursday, a number of political parties on Friday said peace talks will not have any result by having a team which is not inclusive. They said the team is a government team and that Taliban will not agree to hold negotiations with its members.
The parties insisted that the negotiators team should be an inclusive team and that government should be only part of it, not all of it.
The political parties’ remarks come after sources confirmed to TOLOnews on Thursday that the National Unity Government has come up with a list of eleven names of Afghans led by the President Ashraf Ghani’s Chief of Staff Salam Rahimi as the team of negotiators for peace talks with Taliban.
The team includes two cabinet ministers, Minister Mirwais Balkhi of Education and Minister Hassina Safi of Information and Culture, deputy ministers Dr Alema of Refugees and Repatriation, Abdul Tawab Balakarzai of Higher Education and Gen Ebadullah Ebad of NDS; a member of the Supreme Court Abdullah Attai, MP Shahgul Rezaee, Ulema Council member Attaullah Ludin, Paktia Governor Shamin Katawzi and MoFA Director of Cultural Affairs Tooryalai Ghiasi.
Mohammad Ismail Khan, a senior member of Jamiat-e-Islami party, said President Ghani should realize that the new efforts for peace “will fail” by appointing such a team.
“I hope government should not make the process a governmental process. I think it is better that government should let the influential and important figures of Afghanistan who are supported by majority of the people and have the authority to talk with the Taliban and carry out negotiations,” said Ismail Khan.
The team of negotiators has been formed after the new efforts made by Washington over bringing Taliban to negotiations table.
The US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad during his visits to Kabul asked the Afghan government and the Taliban to form their negotiating teams for peace talks.
“Political parties are not there (in the primary list) and some of them are government employees. I think they will face problems if the list is not changed,” said Mohammad Natiqi, member of the Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan.
“If government even has introduced the list, it means that it can be only one side of the talks. Otherwise, if government and the Taliban be the only sides over peace talks, such peace talks will not have a result,” said Noor Rahman Akhlaqi, member of Jamiat-e-Islami.
The High Peace Council and the Presidential Palace have not commented on the list.
However, President Ghani’s spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri said that government is working on formation of a negotiations team.
He said in a Twitter post that government is working on national advisory board for peace and that it will be announced after approval by the president in the near future.
“They are government officials and I think Taliban’s negotiations will not take place with this team,” former Ghazni governor Musa Khan Akbarzada said.
“The list of the 11-member team will remain on paper. They will not participate in negotiations and Taliban will not hold talks with them. (Zalmay) Khalilzad will do his own job. This (forming a negotiators team) is just a symbolic move,” political affairs analyst Ahmad Saeedi said.